


Paying Off With Hard Work | Ruggie Bucchi

by cmaHeal



Series: Twisted Ballroom Pieces 2021 [1]
Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, TWST_ballLit, TwistedBallroomCollection2K21, ballroom: they’re in a banquet hall full of rich people it’s practically the same thing, but he’s also a smartass good for him, hi im mishi >:3c, i had fun with this one!!, ruggie is an amazing role model istg, ruggie “eat the rich” bucchi, yes it’s for that ballroom scenario collaboration run by twst creators server wwww
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 06:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28466952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmaHeal/pseuds/cmaHeal
Summary: Ruggie finds a familiar face at the banquet hall he happened to take a part-time at.Obviously, something had to go wrong.Written for the Twisted Ballroom Collection.
Relationships: Ruggie Bucchi & Reader, Ruggie Bucchi & Yuu | Player, Ruggie Bucchi/Reader, Ruggie Bucchi/Yuu | Player
Series: Twisted Ballroom Pieces 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119188
Kudos: 18





	Paying Off With Hard Work | Ruggie Bucchi

The lights were blinding as usual. The slow waltz wasn’t on at the moment, so it was much harder to duck a head or tuck an arm whilst juggling important (and expensive) platters. There was no exact way to get around anything and everything. Movement in the ballroom was perpetually in flux, in flow, ebbing in and out of the way both discreetly and deliberately.

Amid the chaos and music, waiters and waitresses swivel in and out of the traffic created by the ever-shifting bodies. Large dresses and dangling necklaces were items to look out for and avoid, lest a customer gets annoyed and becomes the cause for a lack of money. That was the entire reason why Ruggie was here anyway--the holidays were always an opportune time to take advantage of the demand-supply ratio. Easy enough hire, easy enough work, easy enough people to work with. The RSVP wasn’t all too costly anyway, so there wasn’t much to worry about in terms of enough customers to serve to make up a surmountable sum. He was used to managing this type of work, at any rate, so it didn’t exactly hold much interest to him. The only issue he had was that the strict dress code for serving area workers didn’t exactly help with movement.  _ So constricting. _

Consequently, it was never a busy night without  _ something _ going wrong.

In hindsight, he probably should’ve expected this. In the large bulk of coworkers he had the graces of working with, he recognized some faces back from Night Raven College. Not every sorcerer who goes to the hefty college was there because they had power or money or connections. Stubborn will and an insane drive to survive were what landed Ruggie in Night Raven College, anyway. And although it wasn’t what the usual majority of the student body was, there were still several students there who came from low lives. The slums. The streets. The pits.

If he knew it was going to be such a hassle for him later on, he probably would have gone on a mini crash course with some of the students he recognized to make sure no accidents had happened. The busy serving area was already a recognizable safety hazard, but he figured the people who were willing and hired to work in a place like this already knew what they were doing. Especially in a moneybag-infested banquet like this one.  _ Of course, _ Ruggie thought to himself,  _ people who are desperate enough to work without qualms end up working hard. But sometimes they don’t work smart, huh. _

Case in point: one of the waiters he recognized ended up spilling their plate all over the dresses of one of the tycoons. And being the hyena therianthrope that he is, he walked right to the accident in hopes to hopefully salvage some grace. It was at this point where he recognized the waiter--the newly appointed Directing Student at their school.

“ _ Shit, _ ” he heard them softly curse. Their hands were shaking as they gripped the platter with white-knuckled hands. “I’m so sorry, miss, please, allow me to clean this up-”

“You’ve done enough already,” the richling said with a pointed glare. “I can clean this up myself. Where is the human resources executive here? I’d like to talk to them, if you may.”

“That’s me,” Ruggie bluffed as he butted in with a slight bow, placing the beverages he was holding on a table next to him. He took off the apron to wrap it around his arm. “What seems to be the problem here? Is everything alright?”

“One of your waiters spilled my drink all over me,” the richling said, still glaring at Yuu. “And my dress wasn’t cheap. When am I getting my pay?”

“I’m… not too sure if I can pay you, miss-”

“ _ Head up, peasant! _ ”

Yuu’s head and back shot straight up. “I can’t pay you, I’m here to work for money anyways! I don’t really have much of my own to give you, but I can try to compensate with free appetizers from the kitchen if you’d like-”

“Does it look like I care about food at this point?” the richling yipped. “I’m here to enjoy myself. Executive, does it look like I’m enjoying myself right now?” It was then when the richling turned to Ruggie.

He guesses he forgot how noisy places like this can get when people don’t get what they want, didn’t he? “Please, take some appetizers. My waiter here didn’t mean to disappoint you. Enjoy the rest of your stay here, and I promise to talk to our CEO about this.” He really wasn’t since he was just a waiter too, but that was how bluffs worked.

“Hmph.” The richling turned her head the other way. “Tell them 30, 000 madols. Along with free dishes for the rest of my stay here.”

“Will do, ma’am.” At this point, Ruggie turned to the Directing Student and pulled them up. Soon after, they were on the other side of the banquet hall.

“Thanks for that,” Yuu said with a sigh. “...I’m realizing now that I’m a little more than clumsy, huh.”

Ruggie crossed his arms with a sigh. “You aren’t the only one who has slip-ups like that. First time working as a waiter, right? It happens.”

“It was totally unnecessary!” Yuu shot back. “It only made things harder on everyone who was watching, and now I have no idea how to go back there without looking like an absolute fool.” During the holidays, Yuu would usually take Crowley’s advice and stay at Night Raven College. But they didn’t exactly want to eat there without being able to pay something back, no matter if their stay was considered as payment for a favour or not. They wanted to enjoy a hard-earned meal properly.

“You don’t need to be worried about that,” Ruggie replied, “if it’s work, it’s work. Quitting now would just mean no money at the end of the day.” And that was never a good thing.

A moth flitted in through the window they were standing by. Yuu sighed. “I can’t, but… maybe I should go get the appetizers and apologize.”  _ Even though she had a rotten attitude. _

“You heard what she said; she doesn’t care about the food, apparently,” Ruggie scoffed. “Doing that would be a waste of your time. You don’t owe her any apology, but you do owe yourself some money if you’re willing to come out all the way here to work for it, right? Focus on that,” he added softly. “You messed up, so? Just remember for next time before the actual human resources executive comes out to get both of our hides,  _ shishishi _ .”

Yuu grimaced, then shook their head vigorously.  _ Like a little puppy, _ said an intrusive thought that found its way into Ruggie’s head. “Alright,” Yuu said with a determined look, “let’s get back to work, then.”

The moth left without a sound as the two of them got back to the main banquet hall. The lights and music felt a little more welcoming this time.

“Suits you better.” Ruggie felt the need to comment.

“Pardon?”

Ruggie had to smirk. “Just thinking out loud.”

The next time Ruggie came back to Night Raven College after the holidays, he found a basket full of doughnuts and a note placed on his bed. “Leona, did you have extras or something?” he called out.

“Hah? You make the meals here, idiot,” Leona said, shaking his head.

“Then who-?”

Yuu smiled to themselves.  _ It was a necessary gift of gratitude, _ they thought,  _ getting to pay back a favour like that. _

**Author's Note:**

> HI thank you to everyone who participated! this is one out of three stories I did for the collab I’m shameless lmaooo
> 
> here’s the docs to a bunch of other stories!! please go check out everyone’s hard work!!
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s5Ie42_A1tZL1Ym46QD8BtIvvQ9GhBqpq67SQeyrwcI/edit
> 
> and here’s the wonderful server where this collab was mainly held!! please join us there for some more fun opportunities like this later on >;3c
> 
> https://discord.gg/58mq9AZSxJ
> 
> yeah that’s all!! y’all heard my gratitudes on my other social media hehe, come find me on [@_cmaHeal](https://twitter.com/_cmaHeal) on twitter!


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